How do you implement a successful employee mentoring program?

Oprah Winfrey and Maya Angelou

Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs

Richard Branson and Sir Freddie Laker

What do these pairs of names have in common—apart from all being famous?

Each of the former names was mentored by the latter.

Oprah said about Maya Angelou, “She was there for me always, guiding me through some of the most important years of my life. Mentors are important, and I don't think anybody makes it in the world without some form of mentorship.”

This is what Zuckerberg had to say about Jobs after his passing, “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.”

Richard Branson reached out to British Airline entrepreneur Sir Freddie Laker for guidance while struggling to get Virgin Atlantic off the ground. Branson wrote in the British Newspaper The Sun, “It's always good to have a helping hand at the start. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere in the airline industry without the mentorship of Sir Freddie Laker.”

Employee mentoring—everyone benefits from it, and everyone wins with it.

What is mentoring?

?Here is a description that best defines mentoring in an organizational setting.

“Mentoring is a career enhancement program for both mentees and mentors. It requires the mentee and the mentor to leave their comfort zones to achieve a successful mentoring relationship.”

The mentor is expected to offer expertise, guidance, values, skills, perspectives, attitudes, and proficiencies. The mentee is expected to share clear objectives and areas of improvement to work on. ?

What are the different kinds of mentors?

Mentors can take on different roles depending on your needs. Sonnenfeldt breaks them down into five distinct groups in his book "Think Bigger." The first distinct groups include:?

1. Wise veteran – willing to give a young person the benefit of their experience and knowledge
2. Eager teacher – passes on specific skills to newcomers.
3. Generous peers – help colleagues and friends learn skills and network with their business contacts.
4. Life coach – advises others on personal goals and career opportunities.
5. Good listener – is there to bounce ideas around and explore solutions for a challenging problem.

How do you implement a mentoring program?

Here is a six-step process that would help implement a mentoring program.?

1. Define the objectives of the mentoring program.

Depending on the purpose of the mentoring program, you'll be able to set clear, measurable objectives for mentoring.

Let us assume you want to internally choose five people for senior management positions in the organization.

This is a clear definition of success. This will allow you to identify who should participate in the program, who already possesses key skills or knowledge that they can help others with, and how mentoring can align the goals of individuals with the organization's success criteria.?

Mentors can be paired with an individual or a group of mentees when structuring mentorship relationships.

The most common form of mentoring in the workplace is one-on-one mentoring when it comes to leadership positions.

Organizations look at classic mentoring while onboarding recruits. You opt for reverse mentoring when it comes to digital technologies.?

1. Define timelines

How long should the mentorship program run to achieve its objectives?

What would be the plan of action – meeting schedule, feedback mechanism, responsibility assignment, and what should the mentoring relationship focus on?

This would help achieve the objectives of mentoring within the given timelines.?

1. Provide the currency

Often, mentoring is looked at as a thankless activity. Mentees don't think they need mentoring, and mentors don't feel the exercise is worth their time.

However, the truth is that mentorship benefits everyone in the organization.

Talk about what the mentorship program means to the mentees and the mentors. Spread the currency about the positives of the mentorship program, which will build excitement and buzz around it.

1. Set it up for success

Mentors need to be trained in mentorship, focusing on feedback, observation, patience, leadership, listening and communication skills, and teaching tools.

Mentorship is a two-way learning process where both the mentors and the mentees bring a lot of knowledge to the table.?

1. Match them up properly

How often have you felt comfortable with a new person just because he graduated from the same college as you did?

How often have you gotten along with someone with similar interests in movies, sports, and books?

It is essential to identify some traits and match them up for the relationship to succeed. This is besides the fact that the mentors must have the necessary teaching skills to advance the careers of the mentees, and the mentees must have the right learning skills to add value to the relationship.?

1. Measure and monitor

It is tough to get mentoring right, even when you follow all the steps listed here. It is vital to measure the outcomes related to the defined objectives and gather feedback from mentors and mentees to see what needs to be changed.

Keep continuously improving the mentoring process. That way, the mentor-mentee dynamic will foster an environment of continuous learning, promoting an enduring culture of collaboration and teamwork in your organization.

Mentoring programs play a vital role in nurturing talent, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and ensuring employees' professional growth and development.

It is a two-way street in which mentoring is considered a powerful and mutually beneficial relationship that transcends professional boundaries and positively impacts both mentors and mentees equally.